CIBC Research discusses the reaction to today's US CPI and retail sales reports for the month of December.
"Sometimes the story isn't in the headlines, and that's the case for today's US CPI and retail data, where both sets of core data showed heat.
For CPI, a 0.1% monthly climb matched expectations, but core prices were up 0.3%, taking the 12-month pace up notch to 1.8%. That's not yet a trend, as the prior month's core was only 0.1%, but it's at least a step up.
Retail sales were similarly unexciting overall, up 0.4% in December. But you have to dig a bit to find the real story, which was that the "control group" (exl autos, gas bldg materials and food service), while up a modest 0.3% this month, was revised to show a 1.4% November gain (vs 0.8% prev. reported), representing a very merry Christmas overall, led by, guess who, online sales. That could see upward adjustments to tracking estimates for Q4 GDP," CIBC argues.
Source: CIBC Economics – CIBC Capital MarketsOriginal Article
